The Furnaces of Palingenesia

It's hard to write about Deathspell Omega in any true sense of the word. Fascist but somehow mockery of fascism. What does one do with a band so wrapped in enigma that it becomes impossible to separate the character from the content? I'm not going to sit here and say that Deathspell Omega is some sort of crypto messenger of apocalyptic politik. But, it’s hard to separate the artist when it comes to something as massive as Furnaces – a complete and utter deconstruction of authoritarianism while at the same time promoting a sort of perfekte society. What comes after the lilies when they cease to blossom? What comes after the freedom from freedom? We will grant you a sort of panacea to frustration of the modern world – after all what is freedom but the ability to choose which mantle is placed upon you when you touch the clasp of slavery?

This album is a a difficult one – not just because of the musicality contained within – it is a very dense album, filled with riffs from hardcore, post-hardcore, black metal, death metal, and skramz – but dense in the sense of what it means. Masked in a cavalcade of catchy riffing and an immaculate production is the work of an age: Furnaces is a monumental testament to the power of creative endeavors and collaboration. Here, on this singular album, we see Deathspell Omega as a fully functioning unit beyond normal musical criticism. It’s flawless in execution, in pragmatic application, and most of all, in musical ability.

“We shall teach you that the bullet of a slave is not the same.”

This is one of three fundamental messages of Furnaces.

Nothing of the world deserves to be preserved – nothing deserves to be left behind. Why did DsO pick such a controversial topic, marred in imagery and dogwhistles. They picked it precisely because of the volatile nature of the topic. Much like the title, it erases and burns to ash all pre-conceived notions of any political stance, despite of the interview given, DsO stands as a sort of monolith for creative expression. They may hate each other, they may shoot each other in the street, but they come together as a massive force of artistic expression. When you listen to the lyrics, they show the violence of a necessary(?) political revolution – but something is amiss. The album itself speaks of a perfection, of a complete change in thought and mind – hearts and minds to the vets here – but what does it mean to actually change the hearts and minds of a populace. It takes violence. It takes forceful change and fear (“Fires of Frustration”.)

DsO takes this fear and force to its logical end – which is a tidal wave of overwhelming force – one that devours and uses up the rhetoric and “good words” of the usual sort. Instead we have a direct attack on modernity, on the emptiness of life, the shallow and pitiful interactions we have with other human beings. In its place is a grand design, one that promises an absolute truth, one where the resistsence hangs from the gallows, where the flowers blossom like spring. It’s a future where you no longer have to worry about the day to day mundanity, rather, you only have to worry about the body without organs – a fully functioning society that no longer needs its members to consume endlessly.
It’s viscously anti-capital. Which in turn, makes it anti-fascist. At least, in parts.

The utopian society in which Furnaces takes place is one that is beyond political reach. It’s not some sort of erasure of history entirely. It’s a project that acknowledges the past but refuses to engage with it (“1523”) – all great moments and shifts in history become footnotes to a larger project. Sure – all things converge upon the work of ages, but what happens to the process, where did these ideas co”me from and originate?

DsO does an amazing job at placing small key thoughts into their music, they always have, but on Furnaces is becomes beyond evident of the influence and process. When one looks at “1523”, “Standing on the Work of Slaves” and “Ad Arma”, one gets a sense of the grandiose and philosophical undertaking of this album. Furnaces takes all of the historical and political meaning that DsO kept in spades, but obscured slightly, and presents a full hand to the listener.

“We will give you a fierce and very tangible enemy for this shall be the root of our cohesion and strength.”

Textbook fascism.

Or is it.

The issues with DsO isn’t subtlety. It’s sledgehammer metaphors. This sentence sounds like fascism. It smells like fascism. If it quacks it quacks. etc. etc. But, this is not the case with DsO – when they utilize fascist slogans it’s not explicitly saying anything – in fact – it’s the covert language that reveals something more sinister or, at the very least, more artistic.

When Furnaces talks of a fragile enemy, and establishing a higher order of will and strength, it’s not speaking entirely politically. It’s speaking in a way that suggests it’s very namesake. A palingenesia – a rebirth – or more accurately, a re-creation.

This context is incredibly important to understand the album itself. It’s not a takeover, it’s not a revolution, it’s not a safe voting bloc. What it is, is something so powerful and forceful, that it triggers a rebirth, a re-thought, a re-union, of all peoples. What DsO is talking about on this album is far beyond any political domination of a party – it’s an utter eradication of dissonant thought. This is the fantasy of Furnaces . One that grants full allegiance and yet, a fantastical representation.

“He that loveth father or mother more than us is not worthy of us!”

A perversion of the Christian creed, the commandment that Jesus gives to his followers. It’s a powerful statement that suggests that all faith, all belief, is underneath the mission of the body without organs. Only, instead of the faith that is ironclad in the resurrection and rebirth that Christ promises, DsO promises an immediate reward of political rebirth and understanding. This is the “Imitatio Dei” that the album promises – an imitation of the holy promises that religion gives – replaced by a body and decision that is separate from the average person, wholly misunderstood, and applied vigorously. This is the artifice of religion that DsO promises on this album:

“Here is a blessing for the Children of the Light, the harbingers of the Great Cleansing:
Your ability to ask the right questions shall be unequalled under this Sun, for you are our Children. Your answers, however, shall be fraught with imperfection, infected by the purulent rot of your vanity”

See how it comments on the vanity? Mentioning the imperfection? These are the marks of humanity that Furnaces tries to stamp out of existence. The same imperfections that religion claims to heal and the same imperfections of which religion claims to rid.

It’s not perfect, but what it is, is something that takes all of the fears and insecurities of people, and creates and a political movement that alleviates all of said problems. But, what is the cost? The cost is not shied away from on Furnaces - in fact, it’s evident in the title, in the lyrics, and in the imagery, that a massive cost must be paid for the price of a perfect society. No, it’s not the Jews (as one myself), it’s not the blacks, it’s not the Muslims, or a varying degree of bullshit dog whistle or explicitly white supremacist that is normally thrown around. What DsO pictures on this album is a complete turnover of all religion, all faith, all credo, and all political understanding.

“When the final resistance hangs on the gallows… Oh yes, I promise unto thee, when the final resistance hangs on the gallows, love will blossom with the ardor of flowers in the midst of spring.”

This resistance is beyond something as trivial as political party. It’s something larger, the core and seed of mankind’s ability to grow outside of itself: faith. What Furnaces is attacking is the immortal and atemporal spirit of man – the same spirit, whether religious or not, drives him to do great things. What Furnaces plans on doing is utterly erasing that drive so it may create something more whole, less obtuse, and more tangible than the amorphous idea of faith.

“The only truly malignant evil is hope, we shall therefore fill the hearts of the masses with hope and ever more hope. The unspeakable shall then become a certainty”

This summarizes the goal of the society in which Furnaces takes place. That hope, that faith, is dangerous. Hope is another word for blind following – what’s the use of blind faith when you have facts, stats, proven methods, behind you? Furnaces is an exercise in having the scientific method of perfection in one’s back pocket. Gone are the needs for faith and belief when one can fully understand what happens in the future because one has set up said future.

“We shall march and march and the sound of our boots on the asphalt shall fill our hearts and minds entirely.”

This imagery is entirely true – they know exactly where they are going. – there’s a reason that these lyrics are back to back – it’s a message showing that the society created is something where everyone not only agrees – but believes in the message.

There’s also a curious reason that most of the lyrics aren’t sung on the album. See, if you read the booklet, each song is a few paragraphs long, but in application, they are not. They are a smattering of the lyrics, a few phrases that are key here and there. This could be because of time, of recording space, of a myriad of technical stuff – maybe Mikko’s vocals didn’t sound good, who knows. But, in effect, this is standard body politik.

See, the omission of words, but having them all written down, is humanizing to a demagogue. It makes the speaker seem more relatable, more understandable, than if they wrote down paragraphs and recited like a robot to the masses. I believe this sort of songwriting was intentional on this album – one that gave DsO the ability to speak about a lot of political and theological ideas without necessarily having to write each one down. See? I’m doing it now. I’m humanizing an otherwise robotic entity like DsO because of the way they wrote the lyrics.

“You cannot even find the ruins. Of the jewels of yesterday. They’re ashes gone. Memories wiped clean”

The idea of wiping memories has been the forefront of authoritarian regimes throughout history. Here in America Bush wanted to wipe clean the idea of peaceful Muslims, Trump wanted to create a smaller enemy in Jews, granting them statehood as a nationality. In Europe, the memories of WW2 are a blank slate, one that led to a rise in Nazism, far right, and reactionary movements that all lead towards a bleak and shameful future. What Furnaces <> does is not as base and vulgar as these movements. It takes authoritarian sensibility to its logical end – which is a complete erasure of all identity outside of that which is the body without organs. It’s a fully functioning society that has no substance outside of the fact that it consumes its own bullshit; its own message, its own breath sustains it.

You cannot even find the jewels or the ruins of yesterday because there are not jewels, there are no treasures. Nostalgia is poison to the mind of an authoritarian. It’s useful, of course. “This is what they took from you” is a standard fascist slogan, but at the end of the day, if you don’t erase the identity, the history, and the context in which all contempt and buildup has culminated – you cannot begin anew.

What Furnaces <> posits is a future in which all social beings simply accept the new truths, the new reality, the new normal. It’s not a message warning us of anything, left or right, what it is, is a message of erasing all past and all interaction for the summation of a greater future. What it is, is a testament to the power of all movements. Things that can be twisted and morphed into powerful messages.
It’s not an easy listen. DsO is not an easy band. But what Furnaces is, is something so far beyond black metal that it ceases to become a musical piece and becomes something much larger. Sure, the riffing, the drumming, and the vocals all scream black metal, but what this album represents is much larger.

Furnaces is a complete demonstration and mastery of the style. No other band comes close when it comes to pushing the boundaries of black metal and no other band comes close when it comes to the message of the music. This album contains a spirit of resistance that is not found in most black metal, or music in general, for that matter. There’s a mockery among of the message of authority and planning. Meticulous control and disregard and erasing of history are met with equal parts disdain and disgust. There’s a pinch of irony and genuineness in every song found on the album – whether or not Mikko’s and company are at odds for being politically opposite or not – the detachment from the authority is powerful and palpable.

The closer is a weak and feeble voice telling the listener over and over you cannot find the ruins. Whether this is supposed to indicate the powerlessness of history and the fact that all will be forgotten, or the powerlessness of the new regime ushered in, is irrelevant. What matters is that from the beginning, a declaration of war, of new change, of a new era – is met with the ending so weak and frail – that is simply becomes a metaphor for all changes and all political movements.

Once started as a brilliant movements then gets churned into a slogan to print on t-shirts and merchandise. Call it the neoliberal fantasy.
What DsO shows on Furnaces is an understanding of the movements and intricacies of upheaval. Ther’es a reason that the album is about rebirth, not revolution. Everything on the album is something much larger and cannot be reduced to a simple political ideology. The point of this album is to show, explicitly, the dangers, the perils, and the pitfalls of establishing something greater than faith, than politics, than a slogan. It is a brilliant album that showcases the small flourishes that songwriting can do to make a message palpable and understandable, while at the same time, showing the cautious nature which such subjects should be handled.

It is both a perfect example of authoritarianism and anti-authoritarianism wrapped up in a catchy, impactful, and harrowing package.

Simply put: this is a rebirth of black metal and a rebirth of Deathspell Omega.